Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe

5 reviews

grandslamdenny's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Child death, Death of parent, Genocide, Gun violence, Death, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Murder, Religious bigotry, Torture, and War

Moderate: Excrement, Medical content, and Suicide

Minor: Incest, Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, Sexism, and Grief

delz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

It must not be an easy task to write a respectful yet entertaining Holocaust story, but The Librarian of Auschwitz is one such novel. The framework of the story is based on a real Jewish girl, Dita Kraus who was 9 years old when the Nazis started their “final solution.” As a 15 year old, Dita became the Librarian of Auschwitz’s, very secret makeshift library that held 8 books. She was part of a secret school in the only camp that housed children, The Family Camp. It was a “front,” so that if a humanitarian group like the Red Cross were to do inspections the Nazis would show this camp where, they believed they were treating the inmates well. Many times survival was just a matter of chance, but on occasion if you were very clever you could workout a way to survive another day. While people lost faith in god and even their fellow man, someone would come along and surprise Dita in their humanity. This is a powerful story of strength and love, love of family and the power of friendship.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Child abuse, Confinement, Genocide, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Antisemitism, Body horror, Death, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, Excrement, Hate crime, Murder, and War

enmcurrie's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This was such a powerful and beautiful book. It wasn’t without flaws, but that didn’t matter. The core of the story carried all the way through. The pace is quite slow but it definitely picks up towards the end, and the last 100 pages are definitely the most harrowing. While at times it was a little hard to completely follow along, everything threaded together by the end to create such a bittersweet storyline. It’s based on this young girl, Dita Kraus, or Dita Adler in the book, who ends up running this secret little “library” made up of 8 old books in Aushwitz, in a makeshift Jewish family camp, set up by the Nazis as a front to cover up the atrocious mass murdering they were doing from any visiting foreign representatives. Many of Dita’s peers and Dita herself do end up being transferred or moved around later on though. In the background of the plot, the book also follows a couple of young men in the SS (also real people) who manage to escape Aushwitz and its horrors.
What was so emotive about this book is how of all these poor people (from children to elderly), in the most dire and horrific of circumstances, could find happiness in the smallest of things. I also loved the message that humans simply surviving is not enough, and that we need things like literature to keep humanity alive, hence why 8 old and tattered books in a place as awful as Aushwitz-Birkenau was so important. It was incredibly sad and heart-wrenching throughout, and hard to read at times. The vivid imagery of the concentration camps and the novel’s use of free indirect speech allowing you into the other characters’ thought processes made it incredibly compelling, and knowing that so many of them don’t end up with the freedom they deserve is the worst part. I think it’s a wonderful read and all of the characters were great, but Dita will most definitely stay with me for a long time. I’m very glad she could tell her story, she’s truly remarkable. The ending was beautiful. It left you feeling incredibly sad for all the loss Dita had faced, but incredibly relieved and content that she achieved all that she did.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Death, War, and Torture

Moderate: Slavery, Medical content, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Suicide

llewellareads's review against another edition

dark reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Body horror, Confinement, Death of parent, Death, Genocide, Grief, Homophobia, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Child death, Excrement, Gun violence, Hate crime, Sexual assault, War, Violence, Torture, and Suicide

Minor: Incest, Medical content, Mental illness, Ableism, and Pregnancy

risemini's review against another edition

the cover is like the prettiest i own but nothing is happening im bored so

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Antisemitism, Ableism, War, Torture, and Gore